It was Oscar Wilde who said that anyone who doesn’t judge by appearance is a fool.   Well, Oscar, I hate to disagree with a fellow Irishman but the latter comment doesn’t necessarily hold water.   We do judge on appearance, which is not to our credit.   Furthermore, such an attitude doesn’t add credit to one’s bank account. 

I recall hearing of a shiftless looking character who ambled into a show house situated on a classy new housing estate. Set in blue-chip Cheshire the surrounding countryside was broken by magnificent homes. If you made as much money as a premier division footballer, politician or banker, they were likely to be your neighbours.

The show home the stranger wandered into doubled as the sales office too.  In fairness, the stranger calling in did look out of place. To say he was dressed down would be to flatter him.  He appeared to be a farmhand perhaps down on his luck. His distressed corduroys and shabby jacket set him far apart from the usual well-dressed house buyers. 

As the man entered the company’s sales office two fashionably dressed sales clerks scornfully peered at the unwanted intruder. When he politely enquired as to the purchasing price and buying process of two homes he had admired, the two sales ladies looked at each other in puzzled contempt.  

As you might expect, the smartly dressed reps gave the enquirer the brush off and considered him fortunate that they had not given him a good dressing down as a bonus.

You know what is coming, don’t you?  It turned out that the caller was the owner of the land and the house builder’s sales representatives now polish their fingernails elsewhere. 

The lesson learned, don’t judge on appearance.  I know several millionaires as I am sure you do.  Not one of them could be picked out in a crowd as being wealthier than the rest of us. In fact, two of my friends actually look down at heel.

As my wife and I accompanied our wealthy client along the promenade at upper crust Puerto Banus on the Costa del Sol, there were a few contemptuous glances sent in our friend’s direction. I was ghost-writing his biography for a far too modest fee. What they didn’t know was that our companion was wealthy enough to own one of the yachts in the harbour. Furthermore, he had just sold his casino for €7 million.

In my long experience, those who flaunt their wealth have very little of it; those who do don’t advertise it.

If you lose a customer by forgetting he is king then your business takes a double hit.  You lose his custom and your trade rival pockets your profits.  If you think the poor man’s shilling is worth less than the rich man’s shilling you shouldn’t be running a business.  Treat all customers with deference and respect.  It’s called business.